Facing Today's Challenges From the Work's Perspective

In 1971, John G. Bennett stood before a small audience at the Gotham Bookstore in NY to promote his 10-month course at Sherbourne House which started in 1972. His talk foreshadowed exactly the truth as we know it today. Prior to this time, Bennett had spent ample time with The Shivapuri Baba, a Hindu mystic who at 135 years of age predicted exactly what is happening now.

My teacher of 14 years attended that very first course with Bennett and passed on great practices, retreat structures, themes, and teachings from the pinnacle of Bennet’s spiritual life. In the end, Bennet would confess that Gurdjieff was his only true teacher and so by transitive properties, these teachings were absolutely passed on to Sean and me. 

Bennett said: 

    “We have a time in front of us that we have to live through, and it is the next 50 years that will be critical. It is wise to look at the fifty years that are coming as a whole, whether it is for ourselves, for those who will have to face the world of 2020, or those who know that their children will have to face that world. There are some things that we can predict about it with confidence, and the most important is that it is going to be very different from the world that we are living in today.

     The environment of our life on the earth is changing very rapidly, at an accelerated pace, and it is not possible to conceive that any events other than major catastrophes will prevent accelerated change, so either we will have a catastrophic change which will leave the world having to pick up and start again, or we shall have an explosive change that will leave us with a world that will be very difficult to live in, and it will be a world that will be progressively more difficult to live in because of greater congestion, because of the more intense interaction between people, the various consequences of the way we have lived on this earth, especially in the first half of the twentieth century which have left a very difficult legacy for those who have to live the next fifty years.”

An effective spiritual work is never about ourselves if it is to contribute to the evolution of humanity. Our efforts are a part of the unified field of shared collective consciousness. The work of a small number at a very high level contributes considerably to humanity. In fact, it is crazy to think that the masses will carry it. 

This may seem like an elitist thing to say. I am not saying that a spiritual practice may not be had by all, but I am saying that a very high-level unity with Source in which one directly participates in creative and generative energy is rare. All levels are necessary and contribute to our children’s and grandchildren’s future, but the higher concentrations held by certain circles will create accelerated transformation. 

With more people, the teaching gets watered down. There are varying levels to be carried by all.

The point of this is to say that we need to prioritize our inner work at this time, no matter what the level. Bennett was not mistaken about a post-2020 world.

We are less connected though it may seem we have easier contact through the internet. There are miraculous things going on with global contact and the sharing of information, but it is not advancing the high level of inner work necessary for us to tip the scales.

Resistant viruses will prevail and will require our ability to become immune. Big Ag, mass spraying of pesticides/herbicides and glyphosates will undermine our ability to fight off toxicity. Pharmaceutical companies will push meds to mask symptoms, providing a tempting easy fix, instead of us changing the lifestyles that cause the daunting decline of our health.

Our inner development will determine our ability to choose from conscience. This includes the food we eat and what we are able to make available to underprivileged people. It means overriding greed and power and making sure everyone is taken care of.

Our inner development allows for stability in relationships and families. Without it, we are isolated, depressed, drugged, and numbed out. This is hitting critical mass.

Our rise in consciousness will vanquish the hold group-think has on us, hate rhetoric, false spiritual movements, and discrimination of every kind. 

Climate change is obvious and happening globally. Our inner development will influence all the choices we make and we must all take action. It is true that we are dealing with a very difficult legacy handed down to us, but we are forced now to make the right choices.

It is not easy to be on the planet at this time but we are here, and we must begin to put something right within ourselves. We can go out and volunteer or fight to change the world but our spiritual transformation has a deep importance in tipping the scale of higher consciousness where accelerated transformation is possible. We don’t have time to lose.

We will justify not doing our spiritual work because it takes effort, so unappealing and so avoided, but this is the bottom line for the effective advancement of our planet. There is a price to pay and we must pay it no matter how much we want to say that things should come easily to us.

Now is the literal fight for our lives.

I invite you to come and study that which will make a great change for all of us. A school of this nature begins to gain momentum when there is a real need. That is what is happening in the Awareness School. 

This is an appeal to those who want a deeper understanding of developed consciousness and the practices that facilitate divine union. 

Sean and I invite you to take our 10-week course, Practical Awareness, opening this Fall both in person in Seattle and online from wherever you are. We invite you to get in touch with us. We also offer a 21-Day Meditation self-directed course as an introduction to what we do here. We provide a weekly study group where we continue to deepen these practices, for those who have taken the Practical Awareness course. We offer retreats to provide conditions for accelerated transformation. 

We look forward to your participation at whatever level is right for you.